The Creation of University Intellectual Property: Confidential Information, Data Protection, and Research Ethics

Abstract

Protection of commercial confidences is both required as part of the intellectual property provisions of current trade agreements and routinely prerequisite for achieving patent protection. This paper discusses the protection of such commercial confidences and the relationship of this protection with the statutory regime in Canada of personal data protection, but does so within the specific context of an examination of these matters in light of the governance of the processes of research conducted in universities. The nexus of university research and commercial research occurs frequently - for example, in the area of the development and testing of drugs in Canada. The paper demonstrates that there are problems in bringing together and integrating the law of protection of confidential information and personal data protection with university practices in Canada. We analysed the research policies of research-intensive public universities across Canada; the Tri-council policy statement, which governs their research practices; and the legal requirements applicable to the universities in Canada's provinces. The paper demonstrates that there is a disjunction between the law, university policies, and Tri-Council policy.